2. Guests/Presentations
a. FHS Visioning Committee – Peter Light, Team
As part of the FHS renovation project, there was an effort to develop a vision for the high school.
A community effort to develop what the building, education and the community will look like in 50 years.
(a copy of the presentation will be added later)
35 teachers, administrators, students and parents.
Not just about the facility, what about the school functioning within
list of team members part of the presentation
Parts of the report will address
- guiding principles
- key words
- school transformation and development map
- 21st century learning
- why come to school?
- student success (how do you define it?)
- project based learning
- school organizational structure
- strategic plan
Key words
- collaborative
- flexible
- technology
- project based learning
- innovative
- convenient
- aesthetically pleasing
- labs for active learning
- open functionality
included a school transformation map
where are we today, where will we be after the renovations and other educational efforts are completed
a foundational experience is the basis for further growth
supportive education, themes, and ultimately a capstone experience
skills development and a demonstration of those skills
portfolio assessment desired as a long term goal
the model was something that the community and the high school actually agreed upon
learning and organizational structures
next evaluation is 4.5 years away for NEASC, time coincidental to do the visioning and start planning for the evaluation
developing additional academies to go along with the Franklin Arts Academy
specific proposals to be brought forward when ready for implementation
original visioning team was seven years ago, started with the Freshman Collaborative
the vision of the new school is a chart to really see, it is highly efficient and utilizes the existing facility to minimize the renovation expense and maximize the educational benefits
Whatever we do put in will meet the needs of the community and the students for the next 50 years.
Mrs Belastock - Most amazing thing was to all come out with the same vision despite coming at it from many avenues, across 8 different tables. Lots of learning around the table and around the room. Hearing from the students and parents was very eye-opening.
Mr Schmidt - This was pure education, something they don't get to do much of, everything tends to be curriculum focused, where are you, how are you going to get there, but this allowed us to step back and really get into this. To create something to get to the future, it might take us time to get there but it is what we believe in.
Jared - I was thinking we were creating a building and we ended up designing a building around the educational requirements and goals.
Light - We need to get the students involved more. Every time we have done so it has been wonderful.
Mrs Sabolinski - Everybody on the committee came together as equals, every one was open, comfortable with sharing, their thoughts, being profound and insightful. Came together as a high performing team.
Cafasso - a lot of the focus in the past couple of years has been on the building itself, the walls and structure. It is good to hear this being discussed on what will be happing inside the building.
Rohrbach - It was a personally rewarding experience, to get to know people in a different way. The students were so articulate. It was a rewarding process. It also struck me that we are really on our way with what has been happening. Not an ah-ha moment but revealing.
Trahan - this is so much more than just the building
Sabolinski - when we get the report, we will try and summarize it.
Glynn - you had a great sound bite there, "building around the education"
Jared- there is no space for collaboration in the building today, we either take over a lab, or some go to the library.
Light - the FHS classroom is 770 sq ft where the state minimum is 800+ the size does challenge us in getting enough students into the room and then to have some work space within the room
Lima - we have issues where trying to run a lab, we would blow circuits, the needs of the infrastructure need to be upgraded to be competitive, form follows function, and Jared stated that quite eloquently
Roy - when is the report due?
Sabolinski - no date yet, we are still providing some data for it
Cafasso - March 30 is an important night, the committee is invited, the entire design team and the project manager have been involved from the beginning, what you'll see on the 30th will be drawn from this
Roy - in the discussion was there consideration of staffing for this?
Light - actually in the visioning there wasn't a consideration for students and staffing. What you're looking for came after that effort, the MSBA provides a standard based formula
For our population, we would end up with a building of 268,000 sq ft. Our facility is about 380,000 sq ft. The excess comes mostly in the field house, corridors are double wide compared to standards, the bathroom (54 in the building) probably 30 more than a school being built today. Should plan on 23 students per classroom.
Sabolinski - there is no mention of staffing levels or teaching levels in the March 30th presentation.
Light - we do that on an annual basis by comparison to other high schools of comparable size as part of our budget process.
Roy - I ma looking at it and nothing I would like to see more than this come to fruition. I am worried about staffing this. I am hoping that the community will be able to support this.
Franklin, MA
